The present state of the art related to sonar towed arrays involves the use of electrical or fiber optic cables for the transmission of data between a pressure transducer and processing electronics located in a submarine or surface vessel. Generally the array is towed up to a mile or so behind the submarine or surface vessel, and the array may be on the order of 1500 feet in length and one inch in diameter. The towed array is generally made in sections of about 300 feet or so which requires a mechanical coupling between sections to secure the 1500 foot array together.
Any mechanical coupler used in the towed arrays must be sealed to prevent water contamination of the fiber optic waveguides, electrical conductors, or the transducers inside the towed array. Present couplers have generally incorporated a number of screws to lock the coupler together. It is necessary to seal the screws to prevent water intrusion, however the general sealing capability has always been very poor and unreliable. Additionally, use of screws which were of a dissimilar metal than the coupler has led to screw erosion because of the galvanic action between the two dissimilar metals. This galvanic action has caused leakage which has produced generally catastrophic failures including loss of the towed array transducer. Also mating and demating of such mechanical couplers has generally been time consuming and has involved use of special tools to accomplish these tasks.
In addition the presently existing mechanical couplers are bulky and not very streamlined along the outside surface of the coupler. The non-streamlined design has led to turbulance which produces unwanted towed array self-noise.